Gilchrist praises 'intimidating' Hayden

Adam Gilchrist described teammate Matthew Hayden as an intimidating talent on Saturday after Australia maintained their perfect World Cup record with a 10-wicket win over Bangladesh.

Although Gilchrist top-scored with 59, Hayden also hit an unbeaten 47, to add to a couple of centuries he has already made, in an easy Super Eights win for the defending champions in a match reduced to 22 overs a side because of a wet outfield at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium.

"Matty has been the standout performer," said Gilchrist of his partner who hit three massive sixes in his innings.

"He's in really intimidating form at the moment and to be part of that parternership is really pleasing."

Australia skipper Ricky Ponting was happy that his side wrapped up their win in the 14th over as they chased down their target of 104.

"It was another good performance. We were lucky to get a game in at all today as the outfield was pretty wet all day, so all credit to the umpires for being sensible," said Ponting.

He was also full of praise for opening bowlers Nathan Bracken and in particular Glenn McGrath who took 3-16 to become the most successful wicket-taker in World Cup history with 57 to go past Wasim Akram's old mark of 55.

"We wanted to make sure we did well with the new ball because we knew Bangladesh would come out hard, they have done so in all their games. We wanted to make sure we executed things well at the start.

"Then Adam and Matty played some great cricket shots, they are both in great form at the moment.

"We've been playing well ever since the warm-up matches in St Vincent. We wanted to carry that through to the tournament and we have done that. But it's still early days.

"We have to make sure we keep it going for the next few weeks."

The defeat left Bangladesh at the bottom of the Super Eights table and struggling to make the semi-finals.

"We lost three early wickets and that cost us the match," said captain Habibul Bashar after his team were put into bat and slumped to 25-3 in the sixth over.

"We didn't get enough runs but we hope to take the lessons from this match into out next game."

Australia's next match is against England here on April 8 while Bangladesh take on New Zealand, also at this venue, on Monday.